western civilization

In my last lecture, I discussed the spread of Greek culture that created Hellenistic civilization.

The term Hellenistic meant, to imitate the Greeks. Hellenistic civilization reach from the

Mediterranean through the former Persian Empire all the way to Western India due to the efforts

of Alexander the Great and his armies. Hellenistic civilization lasted from 323 BCE, the year of

Alexander's death, to 31 BCE. During this time period, another civilization was taking form.

This was the Roman Republic. In this lecture, we're going to shift our focus from Alexander's

huge eastern empire to the Italian peninsula to look at the development of the Romans. The

Roman Republic was initiated in Italy in 509 BCE. Prior to that time, the Romans had a

monarchy with a King who made all the decisions for his people. In 509 BCE, however, the

Romans did something very important. They established a republic. [SLIDE] A republic is a

government in which citizens elect representatives to rule on their behalf. This is slightly

different from a democracy, which is a form of government in which every citizen is expected to

play an active role in governing the kingdom or country to which they belong. In other words,

citizens in a republic tend to play a less active role in their government than they do in a

democracy. The development of a republic form of government by the Romans is really

important for Western civilization. Later, kingdoms and countries, including the United States,

would adopt governments based completely or partly on this Roman model of government.

[SLIDE] Let's look now at the questions I'll answer in this lecture. First, we're going to ask, why

the Romans adopted a Republican government and how it functioned. Second, we're going to

look at why the political organization of the Roman Republic disintegrated in the first century

BCE. And third, we’re going examine what changes Augustus made to Rome between 31 BCE

and 14 CE.

[SLIDE] So the Romans established a Roman Republic in 509 BCE. But many groups of people

were living in Italy long before this time. In fact, the Romans were never the guaranteed leaders

of the region. Until the 500s BCE, the Romans were members of a relatively small tribe of

people known as the Latins that resided in West Central Italy, around where the city of Rome is

located today. The Latins represent the pink shading in the map on your screen. Of the other

groups living in Italy, the two that would influence the Romans the most were the Greeks and the

Etruscans. Let's look at these two groups within the context of Italy. [SLIDE] The Greeks started

arriving in Italy in large numbers during the Archaic period, beginning around 750 BCE. This

was of course before Philip II conquered Greece or Alexander the Great created his ginormous

empire. The Greeks settled mostly in Southern Italy, primarily for economic reasons. They

wanted to make money from farming and trade. They built cities with harbors, which allow ships

to come in and out to carry out trade, bringing foreign products in and Greek products out. From

these Greeks in Southern Italy, the Romans adopted Greek art, including Greek sculptures and

Greek religion. In fact, the Romans took many of the Greek gods and goddesses and simply gave

them different names. The Etruscans also influenced the Romans. By 650 BCE, the Etruscans

had taken control of much of the Northwestern part of Italy. Eventually, the Romans would

conquer the Etruscans, but before they did, the Etruscans passed on their style of dress. By

comparing the artwork of the Etruscans and Romans, we know that the Romans adopted the

Etruscan toga and short cloak. You can see this type of clothing in the picture on the right side of

your screen. In addition, the Latin alphabet that the Romans would use was a modification of the

Etruscan alphabet. The Etruscans had actually borrowed the Greek alphabet and then adapted it

before passing it along to the Romans, who adapted it further to use for their own language-

Latin. [SLIDE] Here is the Etruscan alphabet that the Romans developed. In fact, the alphabet

that we use in modern times comes from the Roman alphabet. So you'll notice some similarities

in the Etruscan alphabet and the alphabet that you use in your daily life.

[SLIDE] So the Romans originated as a small tribe in West Central Italy, and they were

interacting with and competing with other groups of people who were often more powerful than

the Romans. As a way to demonstrate their uniqueness and legitimacy among these other groups,

the Romans came up with a story about how they came to be. This story concerns a set of twins

named Romulus and Remus. But these weren't just normal twins. They were the twin sons of the

Roman god Mars and a priestess named Rhea Silvia. When the current King Amulius heard of

the birth of the twins, he thought that they might one day try to seize power from him. They were

the sons of God, and thus, natural born leaders. So King Amulius ordered Romulus and Remus

to be killed. In response, their mother, Rhea Silvia, put the twins in a reed basket and let them

float down the Tiber River, hoping that perhaps they would be saved by someone. The twins

were, in fact, saved, but not by a person. They were discovered by a female wolf, which, instead

of killing them, decided to take care of them. The wolf had recently given birth, and so she

allowed the twins to nurse from her and she kept them alive. Eventually, the twins were found by

a shepherd, who took them home and raised them alongside his own children. Over time, their

leadership abilities became evident, and it was clear to everyone that Romulus and Remus were,

in fact, the long lost sons of the God, Mars. Realizing their true identities and what had

transpired, Romulus and Remus killed King Amulius and decided to build a city for themselves.

Unfortunately, they couldn't agree on which hill to build their city. During an argument,

Romulus lost his temper and killed his brother Remus. The outcome was that Romulus

established the city in his preferred location and named it Rome after himself. Of course, this

isn’t a factual account of how the city of Rome was established. And in fact, historians think that

the Romans may have borrowed this story from the Etruscans and adapted for themselves. But

the story was important because it allowed the Romans to claim that they were the descendants

of a god, and thus, were the legitimate rulers of Italy, over and above any other group living in

Italy.

[SLIDE] In reality, the Romans took control of Italy in a very different way. In the 500s BCE,

the power of the Etruscans had begun to decline in the North, which allowed the Romans to

expand their power. By 290 BCE, the Romans had conquered much of Northern and Central

Italy. In the South, the Greek communities were primarily commercial in nature and had no

standing armies. This made them pretty easy to conquer, which the Romans did by 267 BCE. So

by 267 BCE, the Romans had become the dominant power in Italy. In the 500s, the Romans

began to reshape their society. And this was because other groups of Italy were fading from

power and the Romans could focus on themselves instead of using all their time and energy to

defend their territory. [SLIDE] So in 509 BCE, the Romans overthrew the monarchy and

established a republic for their form of government. With this, the Romans were officially known

as the Roman Republic. As I mentioned at the beginning of my lecture, a republic means that the

citizens elect representatives to govern on their behalf. Let's look a little more closely at what

this meant for the Romans. The Roman Republic was primarily governed by two chief officials

known as consuls. These consuls not only concerned themselves with policies and laws, they

were also responsible for leading the Roman Army into battle. So they had a legislative and a

military function. These consuls were elected every year by Roman citizens. As with the Greeks,

the only citizens with political rights were men. In addition to the Consuls, another governing

body existed called the Senate. This group was exclusively made up of 300 to 500 elite Romans

from the wealthiest segment of the population. The Senate's job was to advise the consuls in their

actions. And although the Senate couldn't create official laws, the consuls normally followed the

Senate's advice.

[SLIDE] Now the Romans living after the establishment of the Roman Republic after 509 BCE,

they hated kings. And they created the Roman Republic in such a manner as to prevent one

person from holding all the power. But this doesn't mean that political power was distributed

equally throughout society or the government. Political power primarily remained in the hands of

a small group of wealthy Roman families. For over a century after the Roman Republic was first

established in 509 BCE, only members of the upper class could become consuls. They were the

only ones allowed to do so. And as I mentioned, only members of the wealthy elite could be

senators. So, while these political leaders claimed to represent the interests of all Roman citizens,

there was a huge imbalance of political power, with the elite holding most of it. But, it wasn't

long until the non-elite of society began to fight back. So, we’ve been talking about an elite

group of Romans and a non-elite group of Romans, and they actually had official names- the

patricians and the plebs. The patricians were the elite. They were the ones who, in the beginning,

could be consuls and senators, and they had control over most of the wealth in society. The plebs

made up the rest of free society. The plebs were citizens, but they did not possess the same

political rights as the patricians. In addition to the fact the plebs were not permitted to hold most

political offices, they were also not allowed to marry patricians. This was, of course, primarily

because the patricians held most of the political power and intended to maintain their control

over society.

[SLIDE] But in the fifth century BCE, the plebs began to fight to correct this. The plebs' first

success came in 494 BCE when many of them physically left Roman territory in protest. The

patricians, realizing that they couldn’t defend Roman territory by themselves, were forced to

compromise. They agreed to create two new political offices known as the Tribunes of the Plebs.

The Tribunes were given the power to protect plebs against arbitrary arrest and against

encroachment on their rights by patricians. And in 471 BCE, the Plebeian Assembly was created,

which gave the plebeians the opportunity to express their political views and advise the consuls,

much as the elite members of the Senate did. The plebs' next success came in 450 BCE. Up to

this point, there is no public written law. Instead, Roman law consisted of unwritten customs that

only the patricians were knowledgeable of and carefully guarded. The plebs recognized that to

increase their political power, they needed knowledge of the law and the legal and governmental

procedures. So, the plebs threatened the patricians again, and the result was the publication of the

Law of Twelve Tables in 450 BCE. But this still wasn’t the end of the plebian struggle. In 287

BCE, plebian leaders succeeded in pushing through a law that made decisions made in the

Plebian Assembly binding on the Roman government, whether the patricians in the Senate

agreed with it or not. By the middle of the third century BCE, the Romans had conquered most

of Italy, and they created a pretty stable government and society with a more equal balance of

power.

[SLIDE] The stability and peace enabled the Romans to look outwards at the Mediterranean and

contemplated expanding into other lands. When they did so, they found themselves face-to-face

with another strong power. This was Carthage. The Carthaginians had an empire that spanned the

coast of North Africa, Southern Spain, Sardinia, Corsica, and Western Sicily. On the map on

your screen, the blue shading represents Carthaginian territory. The Romans at this time had

control of most of Italy, which is the region shaped like a boot on the top right side of your